Howard Brenton, H.I.D. (Hess is Dead)

Steve Barfield (University of Human Development, Suleymanyia, Iraqi Kurdistan); Lizzie Howe (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1989

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Howard Brenton’s

H.I.D. (Hess Is Dead)

was originally conceived at the Mickery Theatre, Amsterdam, in discussions between Brenton and the artistic director, Ritsaert Ten Cate. It was first performed in September 1989 by the RSC at the Almeida, London, and then by the Mickery at the Waag, Amsterdam. Inspired by the demolition of Spandau Prison in the former East Berlin,

H.I.D

imagines events that took place around the time of the “suicide” of Rudolf Hess, Spandau’s most notorious prisoner.

Hess [1894-1987] was Adolf Hitler’s ardently Anglophile deputy who mysteriously parachuted into Scotland in 1941 just before Germany’s invasion of Russia. He later claimed that he was trying to negotiate peace with Britain. Kept a prisoner throughout the war by Britain, Hess was sentenced

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

890 words

Citation: Barfield, Steve, Lizzie Howe. "H.I.D. (Hess is Dead)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 April 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16759, accessed 19 April 2024.]

Save this article